Cool! I'm so glad Angola is open for us! A huge country to explore.. This Riaan Mansor oke also mentioned that Angola is one of his favourite place because of the interesting people! Sorry about the Gauteng cage drivers there!..

No please don't take it as a general impression on South Africans, I know that to not be true. As a matter of fact we met the most awesome bunch of guys at Flamingos, will tell a bit more about them later.

You are right about the size of the place, we rode around for 8 days and just barely scratched the bottom left corner of the country. Now that Kaokoland is becoming a bit of a highway with all the tours, I truly believe Angola is the next frontier for remote adventure riding.

The last post found us at the northern exit of Doodsakker, very chuffed with ourselves for making it through. Everything worked out pretty well thus far, fuel calculations spot-on and both ourselves and the bikes were in very good shape. The plan was to spend today and the next at Flamingos. Now Flamingos is almost legendary in mind, I've heard about it so much so I was really eager to get there.

On the way we stopped at a wreck - this particular one is called the Vanessa Seafood. I'm borrowing a pick from MetalJockey's report to show how much the land has reclaimed in the decade since they went through here:

Before:

After:

Seeing as we've been riding a good 3 or 4 hours straight we had a quick breakfast consisting of biltong and water. Just a quick note on food: One thing that worked very well for us was taking small 200g packs of shrink wrapped biltong. Before we shrink wrapped it we also wrapped it in brown paper. It packs small, you can always keep a pack on your person and it's very nutritious. The fat in it is also a very good slow-release energy source. In a similar vein, you get these flat packs of tuna which also works very well. Protein also has the advantage of satiating one very well. Contrast with the typical fare of energy bars and sweet stuff which tend to make one want to collapse in a glycemic heap shortly after consuming it. In terms of timing we tried to have a nice breakfast at about 10 or 11 in the morning which would easily last us till dinner time.

Back to the ride, we were heading for our first fuel stop after Namibia, which was Tombua. Tombua is about 60 km's from the northern entrance of the Doodsakker. We continued up the beach and took a right turn inland just past the last wreck. We quickly entered what seemed to be a very dusty sort of pan:

Which turned into a dunebelt:

The dunes predictably were a blast on these bikes. In the distance we could now see Tombua, so just followed a general heading towards the town, there wasn't any roads. Now Tombua is one of these places that you smell before you actually hit it, and as we approached from the south I was hit by the smell of raw sewerage. So much so that it took my breath away. As we crested the last dune before Tombua I could see why - the locals used the dunes on the southern side as a giant open air toilet. Landmines everywhere. I thought for a moment of roosting Heiko with a nice turd but decided against it, in the spirit of self-preservation.

We found the Tombua main road just past two blocks of shacks and as we were riding down the street I heard this curios tick tick tick tick sound in my helmet. It took me a little while to realise that it was actually flies hitting my helmet. It might be the comfortable westerner in me, but I had no desire to hang around the place. We found the nearest Sonangol fuel point and filled up.

Angola's finest at R8.86 per liter. Not bad. This also means that we still had about 7 litres fuel spare, after covering almost 600 km's. The fuel economy on these bikes are just awesome.

It was around 12:30 and getting hot, despite Tombua being next to the ocean. Getting hot meant getting thirsty, and I've began having visions of ice cold N'Gola's at Flamingos. We hit the road and immidiately got stuck behind some sort of funeral procession.

When we hit the highway we overtook them and got up to comfortable cruising speed, which on these bikes is between 80 and 100 km/h. I almost started missing my 990:-) The road seemed to be brand new and in very good nick, probably a Chinese project. We hit a roadblock not far out of Tombua, and to our surprise the officer spoke English very well. You could see he also relished the opportunity to actually speak it, because he asked a lot about us, Namibia, where we've been, where we going, that kind of thing. Something to note with the Angolese roadblocks - the officers were invariably friendly and professional, and not once were we actually asked for any sort of papers or identification.

The turnoff to Flamingo's is about 50km's out of Tombua, and now I could practically taste the beer! And then we were hit by probably the worst riding of the entire trip. The ride down to Flamingo's is about 25 km's down a river, and I must say this is the first time I've ever seen a river that was corrugated! Obviously the combination of no rain and heavy cars just fucked up that route totally. The trick there was to get up to about 80 or 90 km/h and just hold on. It really felt as if both myself and the bike was shaking apart there. Fortunately few things are as tough as an adventure rider in close proximity to beer. I think with Heiko even more so, as he is German and they are born with beer in their veins. He was positively flying and I was trying to keep up.

Eventually we hit the beach just north of Flamingo's and rode south till we hit Flamingo's. I swear at this point I could hear the angel choirs sing, just look at how happy Heiko looks:

We met the owner, Rikko, briefly at Foz (he was looking after a couple of South African groups) and he mentioned that they're quite busy. Anyhow, we spoke to Matt, Riko's son, who runs the place. He told me that all their campsites were full (shit) but that he'll make a plan for us (yay). In the end his plan involved giving us a bungalow at a very reduced rate which included breakfast, lunch, dinner, cooldrinks, water and beers. And oh boy did we take them up on the beers:

So much so that they had to come restock the fridge a couple of times.

About halfway through the festivities we decided that we should go have a swim to sober up somewhat. That plan failed miserably despite us going for a swim. I must admit the rest of the evening is a little bit foggy, but it involved me eating chillies (I would regret my bravery the next day), us polishing a fine South African gentleman named Les's whiskey and having about 30 beers each. The last couple of day's worth of riding was so epic that we just had to celebrate, and celebrate we did.

Oh man! What a day/night that was. Al the suspense about doodsacker, fuel calcs, emergency plans etc etc and then my beloved flamingos. And the awesome NíGola e Angola 🇦🇴 beer 🍺. Makes me want to go back right now! Oh, wait, Iíll be there on Sunday night again 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

subscribed. I know Doodsakker was done recently with 1200GS's but looking at this, I don't want to try it, you guys could enjoy the toughest bits, not just survive.

and yet another huge 500 KTM sales pitch RR as well!!! haha

Respect to those guys on the 1200's, knowing how those are typically overloaded and over-farkled they were probably 120-odd kg heavier than us. Could not have been easy.

Rico Sakko from Flamingo's did tell us about a group of 3 riders on 1200GS's that he had to evacuate after two of them fell and broke their shoulders on separate days, meaning he had to do two trips inland. He was laughing when he told us how he was on the sat phone pleading with the remaining rider to stop riding immediately and just wait for him to come fetch him also.

I think its silly to try to do it in anything bigger than a 701/690! Not because its not possible. But if the sh!t hits the fan you want capable and less weight. Remember to be prepared for the worst..

What a lekker write up. We did pretty much the same route but the other way round. We had some Police run ins and got "arrested / detained" twice in the time we were there. The first time the guy was a soldier completely goofed, but his R1 made us listen to him. Flamingos was excellent, we had to do 2 clutch replacements so we were there a while longer than initially planned. That beer fridge was hammered repeatedly in the 3 days we were there. They must pay almost nothing for the beers to make money in that spot.

The ship was about half way sunk in the sand, when i compare your peecha and the one from MJ's report.

We did it on SE's was an absolute jol, i would love to go back. Honestly though i would not ride on the beach again. Once is enough. The pebble desert behind the dunes is also an amazing landscape.

Today was a planned rest day, which was a good thing because I woke up with a massive hangover. Heiko had no such problems and he was up bright and early. He took care of servicing the bikes, just a quick oil and filter change.

Quick note on servicing and our philosophy behind it: By all accounts these bikes can do 2000 to 3000 km's between services when ridden touring style, i.e. not hanging off the throttle. For us we stick to a service schedule of anything between 15 and 25 hours, where possible. Obviously every service we change the oil, clean oils screens and the magnetic plug. We'll typically change the oil filter every second service. Good thing too, as KTM sold us the wrong sized filters and we didn't bother to double-check:

Reason behind that is oil is cheap (as long as you don't use Swiss Gold, AKA Motorex) and we'd rather change more often with "cheaper" oil than have more expensive oil and stretch the interval.

Air filter is a visual inspection, and it gets changed when it's filthy. We've got about 3 air filters that we rotate, old ones get washed and re-oiled and stored for future use. Apart from oiling the filters we also grease the mating surfaces to ensure a tight seal. Our service regime is thus very conservative, and I think you can easily stretch it out a lot more. These bikes are so simple (compared to e.g. my 990) that I think even someone who's not mechanically inclined at all can have a service done in 10 minutes flat, with most of the time taken up by waiting for the oil to drain.

Flamingos generously gave us the use of their workshop, and Heiko had the bikes sorted quick-quick. I was in no condition to ride, considering my fragile state, but Heiko was up for it. I offered my bike and kit to Matt (Rico's son who runs the place) and him and Heiko set off. When they got back Heiko couldn't stop talking about how awesome a rider Matt was, pulling epic wheelies and slides up and down the beach. I was just happy someone could ride that bike properly - I still get shit scared on that thing when on wide open throttle, that 500 really pulls like a train.

500 flying, literally, when not loaded with luggage:

Carving dunes:

Some awesome riding on the cliffs around Flamingos:

In the meantime I dropped off our clothes for washing (something Flamingo's also did for free, cannot recommend the place highly enough). I spent the rest of the afternoon nursing myself back to health with a variety of sugary drinks and snacks. Heiko was in the mood for some serious fishing so he left with a group up the beach. He caught an impressive garrick (leervis):

In the meantime I had an awesome afternoon nap and evening time we descended on the bar again. The previous night we might a bunch of South Africans on a fishing tour, they were older gentleman, but boy they were intent on having a good time! Every morning each of them rocked up with a bottle of hard tack, and by the time they got back from fishing in the afternoon it was polished. One of the gentlemen was called Willis, he runs an company that sells electric cycles, those with the fat tyres.

Then there was Les, he's one of those guys where you just have to wonder about what sort of bliksem he must've been when he was younger. Now Les couldn't remember our names to save his life. He randomly called us Rudi, Riaan, Michael and a couple of other names that I forgot. Les also did a bit of Enduro riding in the olden days and I almost wet myself laughing when he told us about some SA champion's massive member. In his words "My boy, let me tell you, his piel with this big (shows hands about 30cm apart). And that's nothing, the kop was at least the size of a tennisball!" That was just one of the stories, I loved their company, all of them genuine okes just enjoying life. I hope that one day when I am that age that I can also go on fishing trips, enjoy myself with mates and just chat shit with everyone.

We took it pretty easy because we knew we had a pretty long boring ride the next day to Lubango. Flamingos once again treated us to a divine 3-course meal, after which we hit the sack pretty hard.

What a lekker write up. We did pretty much the same route but the other way round. We had some Police run ins and got "arrested / detained" twice in the time we were there. The first time the guy was a soldier completely goofed, but his R1 made us listen to him. Flamingos was excellent, we had to do 2 clutch replacements so we were there a while longer than initially planned. That beer fridge was hammered repeatedly in the 3 days we were there. They must pay almost nothing for the beers to make money in that spot.

The ship was about half way sunk in the sand, when i compare your peecha and the one from MJ's report.

We did it on SE's was an absolute jol, i would love to go back. Honestly though i would not ride on the beach again. Once is enough. The pebble desert behind the dunes is also an amazing landscape.

What caused the clutches to go on two bikes? Those SE's typically can take an absolute hammering. I was wondering how far the dune belt stretches inland - we didn't go past the first couple of dunes.

Our friend in Iona was also blasted, but fortunately that was our only-run in with the cops.

What a lekker write up. We did pretty much the same route but the other way round. We had some Police run ins and got "arrested / detained" twice in the time we were there. The first time the guy was a soldier completely goofed, but his R1 made us listen to him. Flamingos was excellent, we had to do 2 clutch replacements so we were there a while longer than initially planned. That beer fridge was hammered repeatedly in the 3 days we were there. They must pay almost nothing for the beers to make money in that spot.

The ship was about half way sunk in the sand, when i compare your peecha and the one from MJ's report.

We did it on SE's was an absolute jol, i would love to go back. Honestly though i would not ride on the beach again. Once is enough. The pebble desert behind the dunes is also an amazing landscape.